The retailer offers more than the market rate, which means an expansion manager may earn more than EUR5,000, market actors and experts say. Salaries differ between Romanians and expats. The salary paid to a Romanian executive would take into account similar salaries on the market, while an expat’s salary would be calculated considering the country they came from and their previous pay.
However, it might take three to five or even more years for Aldi to enter, the same retail and recruitment market sources say. Lidl for instance, came in 2002, hired its team and started buying land. It officially arrived in 2011 when it opened the first stores it built and took over Plus Discount chain.
Aldi’s move comes at a time when discount stores are gaining ground. The discount store segment grew to 11% at the end of last year, from 8% in 2012 and 6% in 2008. The two discount store chains in Romania, Lidl and Penny Market, see almost EUR2 billion revenue a year, according to ZF estimates.
Aldi could go with one of two options. Either an expansion using the Lidl model, that is acquisition and then expansion by building its own stores, or expansion only with its own new stores, which is rather difficult since competition already has hundreds of stores in business so it would be hard to catch up.
Grocery retail is a EUR20 billion market dominated by ten foreign-held networks, which account for about 60% of it.
Aldi was established by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946. The two actually took over the store of their mother in Essen, which had been in business since 1913, and turned into a giant discount retail chain.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)